Use Investments to Pay off Credit Cards?

JamesF_

I have debts of about £20,000 on Credit Cards. I am 57 and I am self-employed, earning around £30,000 a year.

I have about £100,000 invested in stocks & shares.

Is it wise to sell £20,000s worth of S&S to pay off the CCs?

My wife is totally against it as she says the investment is our "pension" as I do not have a private pension plan.

My thoughts are that if I pay off the CCs, I still have around £80,000 invested which will grow over the years AND I'm not paying thousands of interest to CC companies every year.

Once paid off, my intention is not to incur any further debts on CCs as a lot of the existing debt was generated while setting up my one-man business.

I'm not asking this here to prove me or my wife right/wrong but only to help US decide what is the best course of action.

watty_2

I would agree with you and pay off the cards.

Unless you are making more on your investments than you are paying in interest then there isn't really much point!

Stageshoot

I would pay it off, reduce CC limits to what you now need+ a bit for emergencies,

and then top up savings by the investing each month the amount you were paying in CC interest each month. Savings will be back to previous level in no time

21castlehill

Have you looked at transfering some if not all to one of the life of balance rate credit cards & treat it as a loan, the interest rate may well match the return on your investments meaning the money you borrowed costs same as the investment money you would have been loosing so net effect being 0%ish loan. Check out the credit cards page http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cards/balance-transfer-credit-cards#stable